New Ways Ministry: Building Bridges Between the LGBT Community and the Catholic Church

gay panic defence

An Australian Catholic priest’s long campaign to end his “gay panic” defense in his state of Queensland may finally be successful. Just two days ago, Attorney General Yvette D’Ath introduced the bill to Parliament, the end of years of lobbying by Fr. Paul Kelly.

The “gay panic” defense has been allowed in murder cases where the accused claims he did not have control of his mind because of being provoked by what is perceived as a homosexual advance towards him. The defense allows for charges to be lowered from murder to manslaughter, thus avoiding a possible life sentence.

Fr. Kelly, who is pastor of St. Mary’s parish in Maryborough, 330 kms north of Brisbane, began the campaign after a heterosexual man was beaten to death in the parish yard in 2008 by two men who thought he was making an advance toward them. The priest began a change.org petition which has collected over 290,000 signatures. Through his efforts, he persuaded politicians of all political stripes to work to eradicate this defense from law.

The Guardian reported on Kelly’s reaction to the bill finally being introduced. The priest stated:

“It’s been a massive effort, unfortunately. At one point both sides [of politics] were sort of saying, aw no, the law didn’t exist and doesn’t need changing – but suddenly everyone’s saying it is a problem and does need changing, so that’s good to hear.

“This is as far as we’ve ever gotten and I’m fairly confident it will [pass].”

“I’ve made it my mission to see this revolting law abolished – it belongs in the dark ages. I have no words to describe how offensive, harmful and dangerous it is that two of our governments uphold that a person can be panicked enough by gay people to justify murder. The common law can really be only over-ridden in this respect by explicit legal ammendments to the Code of Criminal law covering murder and the partial defence of Provocation. Gay panic will continue to be a part of the law of these states until expressly excluded. I am also concerned that even when cases are not formally and specifically pleading the ‘gay panic’ defense, the mere bringing in of suggestions that the victim made a non-violent homosexual advance, (whether true or not), poisons the waters and taps into deep-seated homophobia and bigotry and ought not be brought up at all in any way in the hearing of a jury. The victim is not on trial here.”

Kelly also reported that when he started the petition, he only expected about 100 to sign it. The overwhelming response delivers a strong message, he said:

“When it took off I hadn’t seen anything like it and it really opened my eyes the power of the community. But in some ways it was a no-brainer. The fact it’s taken so long sends a message. But that this law’s being changed now sends another message that the law is the same for everybody. It’s not going to give certain members of the community less protection from violence.”

You can watch a video clip of Fr. Kelly delivering his petition signatures by clicking here. A parliamentary committee will report on the bill by February 21, 2017, reported The Brisbane Times.

While it is gratifying that it looks likely that this archaic law will soon be abolished, it is even more gratifying that a Catholic priest has led the campaign. Fr. Kelly is a shining example of how the Church’s teaching on the defense of human rights for LGBT people can be applied to concrete political and legal situations. To use Fr. Kelly’s own words, there are many similar “no brainers” for Catholic leaders to follow his example. Decriminalizing sexual orientation and gender identity are one case. Pushing for stronger anti-bullying programs is another. And speaking out forcefully when violence against LGBT people occurs is still another.

“The previous state government had accepted a recommendation from a committee appointed by the former attorney-general to amend the laws, but current Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie confirmed in a statement . . .that he would not proceed with the change.

“Mr Bleijie said the most recent amendments to the laws, which took effect last year, had not been examined in a courtroom.”

Bondings 2.0 had earlier reported on Fr. Kelly’s online petition to amend the law. He has collected close to 206,000 signatures from Australia and around the world. Fr. Kelly commented:

“The international attention on this archaic and discriminatory law is most welcome. . . .Queenslanders don’t want it, Australians don’t want it, and now we can see the world doesn’t want it.”

Fr. Kelly became involved in this issue because of a homicide which took place on the grounds of his parish:

“Richard John Meerdink and Jason Andrew Pearce were jailed for the manslaughter of Wayne Robert Ruks in the grounds of Maryborough’s St Mary’s Church in 2008.

“The court did not accept their defence that Mr Ruks had followed them to the church and tried to grab Pearce’s crotch before he was punched and kicked to death.”

Fr. Kelly was cautiously hopeful after his meeting with Bleijie. According to Gay News Network, Fr. Kelly commented:

“He acknowledged there was a lot of community support for a change in the law and he invited me to continue to press my case.

“While the Attorney-General expressed serious reservations about many aspects of my call to reform this law, he made it clear to me that he had not made a final decision on the issue.

“I got the impression he was leaving the door open for reform of this law, but that he was still, unfortunately, a long way from being convinced.”

The priest plans to continue his campaign, despite negative messages coming from government officials:

“Father Kelly said though he believed the ‘overwhelming’ weight of support would eventually see a change in the law, he was left dismayed Premier Campbell Newman was still denying the use of the ‘gay panic’ defence in criminal cases.

“ ‘The gay panic defence doesn’t exist. There is no law that says it is okay to beat someone up or murder them because of their sexuality. It simply doesn’t exist!’ a spokesperson for Newman wrote on his official Facebook page on Monday, July 30.

“ ‘The man [Pearce] you refer to received a sentence of 9 years imprisonment, but the parole board decided to grant him parole on July 9 this year. The key factor in determining this man’s sentence was that he was found guilty of manslaughter, not murder, because the prosecution could not prove he intended to murder the victim.’

“Father Kelly said such claims were ludicrous.

“ ‘The defence isn’t just theoretical – it has been brought up as the reason in two separate court cases in Queensland in the past few years,’ Father Kelly said.

“ ‘For Mr Newman and his Attorney-General to deny that it exists is astounding.’ ”

Our prayers and support go to Fr. Kelly for this campaign. May he be successful in correcting this injustice!